Report: SWR Barroselas 2014 (Day #1)

Day 1

Stage #1

The festival’s first official day started with ETERNAL STORM. It was a nice show, of good melodic death metal, very interesting musical details, although they were playing for a very small audience. They were supposed to play on the secondary stage, but there was a line up change due to the cancellation of WE ARE THE DAMNED, and as a result, both ETERNAL STORM and ERYN NON DAE, ended up playing at the main stage, and NAMI, played on the #2 stage.ERYN NON DAE, brutal and obscure sound from France. A rather unknown band for most of the public in general, but with a great attitude on stage, that granted them a half-full show. Very dissonant riffs, brutal energy and lots of feeling that carry well the band’s beliefs and message. Overall good performance.
After a short notice cancelation last year, the romanian group, NEGURA BUNGET, finally made its debut on the festival. With was a very intense and esoteric show, the kind of ambiance you would expect from listening to the band on record. With songs from almost every of their albums, in particular from their last one, “Virstele Pamintului”, the band totally captivated the audience.
The day’s biggest headliner, GORGUTS, preformed one of the best shows of the entire fest. The iconic technical death metal band from Canada, brought us their latest record, “Colored Sands”, released last year, after a 12 years hiatus. With a strong presence on stage, they mesmerized the audience with their quality and technicality, in such a way that the audience didn’t care much that they weren’t the best communicators. They preferred to let their music do all the talking, and so did we. The highlight of the show, was when they played their song “Obscura”, taken from the record with the same name. It was a very powerful moment for everyone who enjoys this band’s work. A special mention to the fact that Patrice Hamelin played this show with broken ribs, big effort, big enough not to be mentioned. Setlist: …
The end of the first day was the responsibility of MISERY INDEX. The American grind band is on a European tour with GORGUTS, and this show was the first one of that tour. It was a very fast gig, with lots of moshpits and stage diving. The band played songs from all of their records, like “Traitors”, “Sleeping Giants” and “You Lose”. They even got to play one song from their upcoming record “The Killing Gods”. Quite communicative band as well.

Stage #2

The opening of the secondary stage was the responsibility of the band NAMI. This progressive death metal band from Andorra, presented the audience with their music, despite having only two records yet. Although they’re a fairly unknown band in our country, they attracted a considerable amount of people, and give quite an interesting show. It’s most definitely a band to pay attention to from now on.IN THA UMBRA, a Portuguese death metal band from Algarve, gave a rather tepid concert. It was somewhat confused at times, and despite the band’s sound being somewhat interesting, they lacked the necessary presence to demonstrate that.
It looks like the third time is a charm! At least, regarding SOURVEIN. After canceling their performance on this fest twice, this year the band finally made it, and it was well worth the wait. A very intense show from the beginning to the end, were the band try to redeem themselves, before a full house. They were very communicative, had a great stage presence and played some of their most well known songs like “Dirty Sound”, “Bangleaf” or “Fangs”.

The last show of stage 2 that night was GRAVES AT SEA. Following the same vibe and music style as SOURVEIN, this band did not have the same reception as the previous one. It was a very slow concert, whereas the audience stands still most of the time, not responding much to the band. The sound quality was not great, which didn’t help much to the band’s cause. Although they played some of their most well know themes, like “Pariah” or “This Place is Poison”, and new ones from their upcoming split with SOURVEIN, their performance was a little bit bellow expected.